The cast of 'Friends' to reunite for HBO Max next week

Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and the rest of the cast of 'Friends' will all return for the reunion

The cast of "Friends." Clockwise from top left: Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow & Jennifer Aniston.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

In the immortal words of Chandler's ex Janice Hosenstein: "Oh. My. God!" Because the cast of "Friends" is finally reuniting.

The unscripted reunion special was originally supposed to be part of HBO Max's launch last year, but after a year of COVID-related delays, the reunion between the show's core six cast members—Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer—will be taped in Los Angeles next week, reports Collider.

The gang will gather at the sitcom's original soundstage, Stage 24, on the Warner Brothers Studio lot, and joining the cast of "Friends" will be show creators Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane. Ben Winston will direct the reunion special. 

The special will unfortunately not have the cast members reprise their legendary roles of Rachel Green, Monica Geller, Phoebe Buffay, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing, and Ross Geller.

On tonight's episode of "The Graham Norton Show," however, David Schwimmer reveals some details about the long-awaited reunion, saying that he was flying out immediately to Los Angeles after the interview to shoot the special.

Schwimmer teased: "I will get to see everyone for the first time in years." The actor confirmed that "nothing is scripted and we are not in character," but did say that "there is one section of it that I don’t want to give away, but we all read something."

The bulk of the special will feature the cast of "Friends" reminiscing about the ten-season run of the NBC hit sitcom, which aired its final episode nearly 17 years ago on May 6, 2004. Along with the reunion, all 236 episodes of the beloved comedy will live exclusively on HBO Max, part of a $400 million deal with WarnerMedia.

Schwimmer told Graham Norton: "I should have [genned up on old episodes], and I really have very little excuse, but I just haven’t been able to bring myself to catch up on the 236 shows. I guess I need to watch a lot over the next five days!"

A premiere date for the "Friends" reunion has not yet been set by HBO Max, but keep your eyes peeled!

Christina Izzo

Christina Izzo is the Deputy Editor of My Imperfect Life. 


More generally, she is a writer-editor covering food and drink, travel, lifestyle and culture in New York City. She was previously the Features Editor at Rachael Ray In Season and Reveal, as well as the Food & Drink Editor and chief restaurant critic at Time Out New York


When she’s not doing all that, she can probably be found eating cheese somewhere.